Some Flin Flonners seem to be having trouble seeing eye to eye on plans for a replacement for the Aqua Centre.
Last week’s release of the 2020 City budget provided a springboard for skeptics of the plan to share their side, while the city council meeting that followed gave a forum for supporters of the current plan.
In the budget, $237,500 was set aside for demolition and clean up of the structure, with the total cost to demolish the pool and facility estimated at around $880,000. The current plan is for the City of Flin Flon is to depend on money from the federal and provincial governments to fund the rest of the demolition.
“That’s the decision the council has to make as we go forward. I don’t know that decisions can be made until we all know whether that grant application has a favourable decision,” said City treasurer Lyn Brown when asked at the March 3 unveiling of this year’s Flin Flon budget.
“If we don’t get the grant money, our hands are kind of tied. Heavy snowfall tomorrow could knock that building over. We’re going to have to remove it one way or another, sooner rather than later,” councillor Tim Babcock said.
In the five-year capital expenditure plan included with the City budget, municipal government currently plans to budget $3 million for the Aqua Centre in 2021 and another $5 million in 2022, in addition to the current budget expense of $237,500 this year. The plan is hingent on whether city council receives sufficient grant funding from both federal and provincial levels to fund a new pool. Last September, city council approved a measure to borrow just over $1.8 million to provide funding for an Aqua Centre replacement, with another $300,000 coming from existing community donations and another $254,000 coming from Flin Flon’s share of the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) fund.
“Three quarters of that will be essentially covered by other funds and grant money. If we don’t get the grant in 2020, I suggest we apply for the grant again for 2021 and what we have to deal with,” Brown said.
A number of attendees at the budget meeting objected to the current City plan for the replacement for the Aqua Centre, saying investing in a new facility with Flin Flon facing a murky economic future would be a bad move. Four attendees – Greg East, Telis Keramydas, Skip Martin and Bruce Reid – objected to the City’s Aqua Centre plan as described.
In the general operating fund budgeted expenditures, spending on swimming pools and beaches this year is slated to be $118,600 in 2020, with another $120,000 in funding coming in 2021. The funds are not solely devoted to the Aqua Centre, with some money going toward spray pads and maintenance at Channing Beach.
Martin, a former member of city council himself, voiced concerns with the projection, questioning how the City could spend nearly $120,000 on swimming pools and beaches with the community’s main pool now out of commission.
“They’re very basic projections. I don’t know what we’re going to be doing in 2021 with the Aqua Centre. There could be things staff need to do related to work that year. It was just a way to put a number in there in case we needed it,” Brown said.
East, a prominent skeptic of any proposed Aqua Centre redevelopment, said funding for a large-scale project around the same time as Hudbay plans to cut almost all operations in Flin Flon would be risky. Both Martin and East showed concern over large-scale funding while a major source of municipal revenue – the grant-in-lieu paid annually by Hudbay – could be in doubt. It is unknown what changes may come for the annual grant-in-lieu once Hudbay closes most of its Flin Flon operations in 2022.
“We’re looking at spending a lot of money and we really don’t know. Our grant-in-lieu is a major part of our budget,” said Martin.
“The plan would change drastically if that disappears, obviously,” said Babcock.
Martin’s objection was also based on whether the Aqua Centre construction plan would include any significant funding from neighbouring communities, such as Creighton, Denare Beach or cottage areas. The Town of Creighton donated $50,000 to the Aqua Centre Community Committee.
“I have an objection with the pool. I really like the idea of a pool, I like the idea that we can teach everybody how to swim when we’re surrounded by water. I don’t like the idea of Flin Flon bearing all the costs on its own,” said Martin.
“The number of taxpayers is going to shrink, most likely. The grant-in-lieu of taxes shrinks. The amount of blood you have to get from the same stone… we have to get a handle on what the numbers are going to look like before we tie ourselves to a project like the pool,” said East.
“I’m not in favour of building it until there’s an agreement whereby everybody in the region agrees to pay their share of construction, maintenance and operating – because operating is a big part of that, too. I would like an agreement to be in place before we start building this.”
“We’re all on the same page on that,” Babcock said.
“These are all discussions that we’ve had around the table,” added councillor Colleen McKee.
“It is a regional facility. Our approach – and we have tried, repeatedly – to bring the communities together and I feel that we are having some success and we’re building relationships. The other thing that people need to understand is if the pool is important to them, they should be lobbying their local governments.”
Keramydas asked if city council would be prepared to limit access for people from communities that would not add funding to the Aqua Centre project, something council was not willing to discuss at the meeting.
“I’ve been saying now for the 10 years I’ve been on council that when something here closes, it closes for everybody. Nobody wants to contribute anything until it’s not there any more,” Babcock said.
In the city council meeting that followed the budget meeting, council received no fewer than eight letters of support for a new Aqua Centre from the public, most of which came from Grades 1-2 students at École McIsaac School. Other letters in support came in from the Flin Flon Aqua Doves and resident Barb Link.
“We strongly encourage all levels of government that govern our community and the surrounding communities that use our infrastructure to support the development of a new facility within our community in a timely fashion,” reads the letter to council written by the executive board of the Aqua Doves.
“We live in the north, surrounded by lakes. Everyone needs to learn to swim. The pool provides this to individuals and school children. Our seniors are very active and there is a weight room that many people use,” said Link in her letter.
